With this dress from Wicca Merlin, I feel gorgeous. Wicca has managed to give new life to this template piece with polka dots and white trim. It’s kind of a wild look in some ways but she tones it down by making it purely black and white. Wicca is offering this beautiful dress with a stylish hat for the 2Lei event in observation of the “International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.” Learn more here. Underneath it all are Tiffy Vella’s great gacha shoes for Winter Faire. At 40L a pop, they are a deal!

I am wearing the dress over the Belleza body with the push up breasts on. I have paired it with Shyla Diggs’ new skin that’s coming out at Uber soon. Once again, Shyla has outdone herself with gorgeous, expressive makeups and beautiful brows and features. My hair is MissAllSunday Lemon’s for Geeks N Nerds, and I am not quite sure what is geeky or nerdy about this lovely style.

“I’m a fuel-injected suicide machine! I am a rocker, I am a roller, I am an out-of-controller!” ~ Nightrider in “Max Max”

Genre’s theme this month is post apocalyptic, so I threw together a look from all the great stuff offered that is fierce and sexy, hoping I could share with you a little post apocalyptic style. Top to bottom, items that are from Genre: wild red hair from Cruella Pennell, who includes two different shaved heads that are tintable if you need to go wild. Then there is a “tiara” from Photos Nikolaidis that I tinted myself to match more with my outfit. A little necklace from Plurabelle Laszlo, a remake of a great bottlecap necklace she had done years ago (I know because it was my first happiness from Bliensen + Maitai). My bracer from Discovering Destiny includes vials of.. something and the ever-important key.

I rezzed the trailer from Jack Mondegreen and somehow my photo platform transformed itself into the Wastelands and bizarre characters of dubious provenance wandered across my scene. Soon I was engaging in chase scenes and various other feats of survival, using poses from Nancoix Urquan. Boots from Keishi Roo, of course, give me the edge and the skirt from Spooky Mistwallow (yes, tough girls can wear skirts, especially when they wield a nail studded baseball bat from Draconias Timeless). All of the above is from Genre. Capture was in order with a great pose set from Kirsty Oherlihy (not available at Genre but essential to this narrative). I gave Z a run for his money!

I am wearing Paul Lapointe and Bastchild Lotus’ new corset, which includes a great texture change HUD with a ton of color options for the leather and the metal studs. Clicking this look in took a bit of time because I had so many choices! Paul makes a variety of sizes of mesh to suit your body proportions. If you prefer to be a bit more busty, he gives you that option. Any piece from L&B is chock full of options and is made of 100% original and well-rigged mesh. I can’t speak highly enough of their work.

I want to point out I am wearing the mesh Venus body from Belleza. I have done a few things with it to complete my look. I clicked on the push up breasts to fill in that corset, and I reduced my shape size. I still can’t understand why folks resist messing around with their shape a little to get the look they want to achieve with their mesh body. This is the fitted mesh we all wanted for so long! Let’s use it! I reduced my breast size slightly to fit the higher boobs from the shape into this corset and voila!

I also invested a paltry sum and some time into the Omega appliers so I could wear the great textured stockings on Omega appliers Bax Coen JUST came out with. Make sure you get the NEW [LNL] Omega System Kit – Belleza. Wear the “installer,” click it to load into your body, and then you can wear the Omega applier from Bax and click, you’re in business. Fishnets! Do you want to figure out how to do this yourself? Join the Love N Lust group or join Skin Addiction group and ask.

And incidentally, Skin Addiction is having a blow out Black Friday sale starting this Friday. You need to join the Skin Addiction group (tp here) and then you wear your tag to get a kick back on any advertised purchases. (You also get to enjoy the scintillating repartee in the group and get help from hundreds, nay THOUSANDS of informed skin shoppers who also know tons about everything else SL.) There are OVER 50 creators offering at LEAST 25% off for this event so, as Maxxi says, find your sugar daddy and get shopping!

To much to many people’s surprise, I really do not like promoting myself. It’s a Midwestern thing—don’t make noise, don’t be too full of yourself, don’t put yourself over others. But I have been honored to be nominated once again for the Avi Choice Awards, so for this one blog entry I am going to ask you to vote for my blog, “A Passion for Virtual Fashion,” as Favorite Fashion Blog and for me, “Harper Beresford,” as Favorite Fashion Blogger.

It’s quite easy to do. Go to the Avi Choice Awards here and here (click on these links and they will take you right there). Then just click in the little radio buttons where I have highlighted and click vote. Could it be easier?

Then you can scroll back and check the other polls. There are some wonderful people represented here and some wonderful blogs and bloggers. I am esteemed to be in their company.

OK with that uncomfortable task done, let me tell you about what I am wearing. LacunaInc is participating in My Attic with the theme of “How to Marry a Millionaire.” She came in with this gorgeously textured dress, lace overlaying a satin, in several colors and priced so inexpensively, your millionaire could get you the fatpack and still walk away with change. Senzati0n Domenitzo is also participating with these sexy pumps which are pure class.

I am still beguiled by the skin that Mochi Milena has made for androgynous looks. As a woman’s skin, it’s lovely and provides a beautiful palette for makeup, so I chose a liner from Constance Daehlie and lips from Zxxrysa Magic, which I have been wearing like mad it seems lately. My hair is a gorgeous side-swept look from Shylah Honey for N21 that comes with all the great textures Damselfly offers.

Hair: *~*Damselfly*~*Anjelica Rigged-Mesh by Shylah Honey for Damselfly, available at N21 *

Wait
Who’s that guy
Just hanging at your pad
He’s looking kinda bummed
Yeah, you broke up, that’s too bad.
I guess it’s fair if he always pays the rent
And he doesn’t get bent
about sleeping on the couch when I’m there.

‘Cause I like you
yeah I like you
And I’m feeling so bohemian like you

I shuffled around in my inventory and put together this bohemian look today. First I start with the great sweater/tank set from Ariadna Garrigus that comes with a darling mini skirt I chose not to wear. It includes a texture-change HUD with three options for different looks. I paired it with some baggy shorts I got a bit back from Kristabel Ashmoot that include a super-skinny red belt, which provided the pop of color that inspired red tights from Maya Levane. A casual necklace with texture changes for the beads and cord from Maxi Gossamer and awesome boots from Kinu Mayako that include a great HUD and are discounted at Thrift Shop, and I am set with one of those hodgepodge looks that seems to come together somehow.

I think this cute hair with a braid running over the front from Truth Hawks kind of pulls it all together. It’s bohemian and girly and messy and dyed at the ends. And an intensely lined eye from Sawsan Secretspy, her new skin for Suicide Dollz, makes our bohemian girl ready to face the day.

I wanted to congratulate my name doppleganger, Harper Ganesvoort, on SEVEN YEARS of blogging about SL and fashion. Harper has been exploring the grid all this time with intelligence, panache and love for all this time, putting the rest of us to shame with her dedication and enthusiasm. Congratulations, Harper!

A message of love, of plain simple love, seems a good one to forward. We’re here just to love one another. Let’s also love fashion and the color red, which I am doing today. Let’s go bottom up and start with these darling shoes, which are Cyclic Gearz’ offering for 21Shoe, only available in this color and another on November 21 at her store at a 2-for-1 price. My skirt is a darling mesh piece from nodoka Vella that she has marked as a sale item at her store. And my top from Ugly Frog and Eeky Cioc I found by word of mouth and what a word! The top comes with a texture change HUD that allows endless variations on different parts of the top—the main, the buttons, the ribbed bottom and the sheer blouse. The mesh fits perfectly and the detailing is amazing. AND it’s made to fit over other things, which so much mesh fails to do. Perfect!

I have Inka Mexicola’s lovely and inexpensive skin from The Dressing Room Fusion on again, this time with blonde brows. I can’t imagine how anyone would pass up grabbing this set from TDRF because it’s so lovely in details and the lips are pure lusciousness. Nicole Button’s new eyes make this look, especially with Kavar Cleanslate’s pretty, side parted long hair for Collabor88.

“Some people are born to make great art and others are born to appreciate it. … It is a kind of talent in itself, to be an audience, whether you are the spectator in the gallery or you are listening to the voice of the world’s greatest soprano. Not everyone can be the artist. There have to be those who witness the art, who love and appreciate what they have been privileged to see.” ~ Ann Patchett, Bel Canto

I watched an opera the other night and realized I am not meant to create but just to enjoy with unveiled enthusiasm the creations of others. Seeing Renee Fleming sing moved me, and I felt that transcendence that the best art provides. I can’t create that but I can certainly appreciate it.

My friend, Tab, in a search for an SL equivalent to a RL design, found this dress from Areve and offered to get it if I would model it. We were both astonished by its architectural lines and beautiful design, rendered wonderfully in mesh and in white, no less, which is a hard one to do in textures. It’s sexy, elegant, powerful. Barely, upon seeing the photo of this dress, said, “That dress says to me: ‘Under this fabric lies the woman who will extract every last drop from you.’” Just my kinda dress.

These shoes from Nardya Rousselot from the Liaison Collaborative echo the design lines of the dress. I am so happy Nardya is back to making shoes and the sweetheart makes them for Slink, Belleza and other feet. They are so exquisitely rendered with such gorgeous design, it’s a shame to wear anything else but the shoes. However, I would get arrested showing up on the Immense sim mostly nude. I could wear the great ring and earrings from Aleida Rhode that just came out at L’Accessoires and then I would be dressed, right?

Sawsan Secretspy’s sophisticated skin is perfect for this dress. Beautifully shadowed with defined brows and beautiful eyes I highlight with a liner from Constance Daehlie, the skin speaks to the elegance of the dress. I chose dramatic locks from Catwa Clip to complete the look. I knew I needed something windblown, voluminous and curvy to match the tight lines of the dress and this was it.

When we’re young we set our hearts upon some beautiful idea
Maybe something from a holy book or French philosophia
Upon the thoughts of better men than us we swear by and decree a
Perfect way to end the war of ways the only way to be a…
Work of art, oh to be a work of art

But in time a thought comes tugging on the sleeve edge of our minds
Perhaps no perfect way exists at all, just many different kinds
Oh but if it’s just a thing of taste then everything unwinds
For without an absolute how can the absolute define…
A work of art, oh to be a work of art

I love this gentle song about growing up and learning that life is not black and white. Sometimes SL could use a little of that. And black and white is my look today, starting with two separates that Shai Delacroix has come out with that include her characteristically ingenious HUD that includes a mesh piece that shows you just how the clothing will look with its texture. The sweater and skirt do not have to go together—in fact I suggest you find other separates to wear with them to mix and match because they are both basics, especially the sweater, which comes in many lovely colors. The skirt includes some brilliant artistic looks but I went for this black and white to match the silver shoes Pill Kanto has made for The Secret Affair. (Those heels ARE rezzed. He has cleverly made a platter-shaped heel.)

Mina Nakamura is offering a special black and white set for Kustom 9 as well as others. I decided to tiny this long casual style with black ends to give contrast against Shai’s sweater. My skin is Inka Mexicola’s generous bare look at the Cirque du Seraphim, which ironically donates money for the ASPCA. My delicious intense eyes are Nicole Button’s newest for Egozy.